Roper and Summers impress Ivey

The Gators held their second of 15 spring practices on Friday afternoon and several prospects were on hand to see Florida go through practice.

One prospect that was on campus and has become a regular visitor to Gainesville was offensive tackle Martez Ivey (6-5, 271, Apopka, FL High) who enjoyed his visit but admitted that he has seen everything on campus before.

“Florida was good, it was great actually,” Ivey said. “I’ve been up there so much that I didn’t really see anything different but I basically was just walking around and seeing everything again. Florida is almost like home I’ve been there so much.”

One thing that was different on Friday was that Ivey was able to see new offensive line coach Mike Summers in action on the practice field and he impressed Ivey.

“Coach Summers is a very energetic coach,” Ivey said. “He’s an older guy but he was out there yelling and making sure they were doing the little things right and helping the linemen get better really. He’s what I expected as offensive line coach. As an offensive lineman you want to get coached up hard because if you don’t how are you going to be good enough to win games.”

Another new coach was also on the practice field Florida on Friday in offensive coordinator Kurt Roper who Ivey called a perfectionist.

“Coach Roper is definitely wild out there,” Ivey said. “He was getting on the players about every little thing because he is perfectionist. His offense though is a simpler run offense for the players. I think I fit into that offense because it’s similar to what we run in high school now.”

Next up for Ivey will be a trip back to Gainesville with his good friend Chandler Cox but other than some return trips to Gainesville, Ivey doesn’t know which school he will visit next.

“I don’t really know what school I’m visiting next because I don’t have any planned,” Ivey said. “I know that me and Chandler will be back up to Florida sometime this spring though.”

While Ivey is starting to feel at home at Florida he’s in no rush to make any kind of decision until next fall or maybe even after that.

“I’m going to wait longer to make my decision,” Ivey said. “I want to take a few official visits probably to Florida, Auburn, Alabama and maybe LSU this fall.”

Andrew always knew he wanted to be involved with sports in some capacity. He began by coaching high school football for six years before deciding to pursue a career in journalism. While coaching, he was a part of two state semifinal teams in the state of Alabama. Given his past coaching experience, he figured covering recruiting would be a perfect fit. He began his career as an intern for Rivals.com, covering University of Florida football recruiting. After interning with Rivals for six months, he joined the Gator Country family as a recruiting analyst. Andrew enjoys spending his free time on the golf course and watching his beloved Atlanta Braves. Follow him on Twitter at @AndrewSpiveyGC.

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